TxDOT and the Taco Truck

The local grourmet food truck scene is growing, and sometimes that means growing pains, like ordinances that limit where you can operate and what you can serve. No food truck operation knows that better than Chela’s, a popular north side taco spot located near the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio and this year’s Express-News readers’ and critics’ choice for best mobile restaurant.

But those kinds of accolades probably don’t mean a lot to the Texas Department of Transportation, a state organization that mainly deals in the business of highways and roadways. So last Thursday, TxDOT served up an ultimatum for Chela’s owner Marty Davis and told him to close shop and move on down the road. Literally.

The problem? TxDOT officials said he was putting drivers in danger by locating his truck in a place that forced motorists to park on the state-owned right-of-way, at the intersection of UTSA Boulevard and Utex. Parking or operating a business on that TxDOT right-of-way, they said, is illegal.

The other problem? When Davis did move his truck off the right-of-way, he relocated to the adjacent private property. Who owns the property? Santikos Raw Land Ltd, a real estate division of the large theater chain.

Besides that, when Davis moved, said TxDOT San Antonio Spokeswoman Laura Lopez, customers were still parking on the right-of-way.

Davis said his run-ins with TxDOT go back more than a year. According to a Santikos official, both TxDOT and property officials had asked him to move more than once. TxDOT did a land survey to show Davis he had moved his truck on to private property.

Davis allegedly told TxDOT officials that the land around him was land “that no one owns,” and later, that he had permission to be there, when actually he didn’t, according to the Santikos official.

A Santiko’s representative was one of several folks who descended on the truck during what Davis said was his lunch-time rush on Thursday. The others included officers from the San Antonio Police Department, and officials with the Metro Health Department and TxDOT.

“In this case, it’s not his property, and apparently he did not have permission from the owner to be parked there,” Lopez said.

The police and the Santikos represenative told Davis he had to leave the site. Davis demanded paperwork to prove the latter actually owned the property. He said the police told him the representative did not have to show him proof. The health department also issued him a citation for parking on unauthorized property.

“They just came out and basically bullied me out of there,” said Davis, who has enlisted help from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose aide has frequented the truck before and, Davis said, brought Chela’s tacos back to the senator. (Says Davis of the senator’s office, “These guys are big fans of us.”).

Davis still maintains the property wasn’t marked, there were no “no trespassing” signs, and there’s never been an accident to speak of while he’s been doing business. He also said he’s never received a formal letter from TxDOT asking him to move.

According to Lopez, the TxDOT spokeswoman, “because people were still parking in that area, it still posed a safety concern, because even though a fatality had not occurred in that area, there was still a chance that could happen.”

So Davis moved and reopened the next day — around the corner. Now, Chela’s is on Utex, slightly closer to I-10 but still a stone’s throw from UTSA Boulevard — “literally, a football field away from where I was before,” Davis said. Utex is a city-owned street, Davis said, and therefore governed by city rules for right-of-way and food trucks.

So what’s next? Davis said motorists were probably in a safer position before the move. TxDOT may have wanted to eliminate any traffic problems, but, “what they’ve done is to create a traffic issue.”

Whatever happens next, Davis doesn’t seem shy about stating his position against what he considers “total abuse of government.”

“I’m not the easiest bear to push around,” Davis said. “It’s like the Yogi Bear phrase: smarter than the average bear.”